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UN
Secretary-General
Ban Urges
Immediate Action
on Global Food
Crisis
World
Bank President:
"We have to
put our money
where our mouth
is now, so that
we can put food
into hungry
mouths."
Millions
of people
could fall
deeper into
poverty and
there could be
political and
security
repercussions
as a result of
the growing
global food
crisis, United
Nations
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
has warned.
 Secretary-General
Ban called
for both immediate
and long-term
measures to tackle
the crisis.
"The
rapidly escalating
crisis of food
availability around
the world has
reached emergency
proportions,"
he told a joint
meeting in New York
of the UN Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC),
the Bretton Woods
institutions, the
World Trade
Organization (WTO)
and the UN
Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD).
"We
need not only
short-term emergency
measures to meet
urgent critical
needs and avert
starvation in many
regions across the
world, but also a
significant increase
in long-term
productivity in food
grain production, he
said, citing the
recent steep rise in
prices and World
Bank warnings that
the crisis could
mean "seven
lost years" in
the fight against
global poverty.
 Mr.
Ban called for
building consensus
around measures on
development
financing that would
lead to more stable
and predictable
long-term resource
flows to developing
countries.
He
noted that
middle-income
countries need
better market access
to foster their
comparative
advantages as well
as technical
assistance and
knowledge sharing to
help address
critical gaps in
their development
processes, such as
improving
infrastructure,
integrating into
world financial
markets and tackling
persistent pockets
of poverty and
growing inequality.
Citing
trade as an engine
of growth for the
poorest economies,
he appealed for
increased investment
and technology
transfer from donors
to help the least
developed countries
to broaden their
exports through
diversification and
economic
capacity-building,
thus bolstering
"aid for
trade" support.
 He
also called for
"innovative and
robust regulation to
protect financial
systems and sustain
continued growth and
expansion,"
warning that
regulatory checks
and balances have
failed to keep pace
with the
"enormous
growth" of
recent years.
"The current
turmoil in world
markets demonstrates
that this gap is
unsustainable,"
he declared.
Finally
he noted that
long-term global
economic growth and
sustainable
development is
imperiled by climate
change.
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